Electoral Reform - restoring Integrity to First Past the Post. The Progressive Canadian Party.

Monday, 18 January 2016 12:29

Electoral Reform - restoring Integrity to First Past the PostThe Progressive Canadian Party

For Immediate Release January 18, 2016

Newmarket, Ont. - Progressive Canadian Leader, the Hon. Sinclair Stevens, and the PC Party today issued a statement on measures the PC Party National Council see as important to restoring confidence in the integrity of Canada's electoral system as a strongly preferred series of measures if Canadians are to continue to elect Members of Parliament to the Parliament of Canada, not parties or movements or followers of unaccountable party leaders.Electoral Reform: - Repeal Bill C-16, the fixed date election law that neutered the Opposition and tightened party control by all parties and party leaders, including the Prime Minister's Office.

- Elections Canada should be empowered to establish and moderate pre-writ period and writ period spending limits per party and per candidate. Elections should be about who we elect in each riding to be Members of Parliament in the Parliament of Canada, not about parties and money.

- If there is to be electoral reform it should end selection of constituency candidates controlled without cause by the corporate political party and party leader.

- Taking party names off of the ballot, which first occurred in the 1970s in Canada, would better encourage selection of Members of Parliament as constituency representatives.

- Resist pressure to submit to party proportional representation urged by PR advocacy groups. Regional minority disenfranchisement leading to separatism, ending Canada's parliamentary democracy by the people represented in parliament to favour control by party oligarchies are characteristics of all PR systems - these are fundamental changes to the very nature of parliament.

We must also respectfully advise the new prime minister of Canada, the Rt. Hon. Justin Trudeau, that the system of ranked ballots that he is said to prefer personally, while admirably suited to small groups like clubs and party conventions is not suitable to elections to the Parliament of Canada.

A campaign promise to make 2015 the last first-past-the-post (fptp) election in an election defined by voter intention to remove this government's predecessor is neither binding or a mandate to change how this country is governed; indeed, the intention of the previous government to do just that by other means was their undoing.

A Supreme Court of Canada reference is necessary on the constitutionality of any proposal brought forward for such fundamental change to Canada's democracy, with or without public consultation in citizen assemblies or other means. Even if any such proposal to change Canada's parliamentary democracy fundamentally is found to be constitutional, it is not enough to be within the basic law of Canada. Such fundamental change would require the further endorsement of a large majority of the citizen's of Canada, no less than did the Charlottetown Accord.

Our electoral system, freed of distortions of earlier electoral reforms is clear, simple, and democratic - unlike the alternatives, which are arbitrary, and commonly blindly party partisan.

We elect Members of Parliament to the Parliament of Canada, not parties, movements, or prime ministers.

Newmarket, Ont. - Progressive Canadian Leader the Hon. Sinclair Stevens reacting today to the new Liberal government's intention to change Canada's electoral system based on public consultations and a parliamentary vote in a majority government questioned the legitimacy of the process.

Mr. Stevens pointed to the Australian practice of mandatory voting and repeal of the ill-considered fixed date election law which offends the Canadian principle of responsible government.

"High voter participation rates in Australia are encouraged by mandatory voting, with allowance for special exceptions. Repeal of the fixed date election law would restore accountability to government, as the Progressive Canadian Party indicated in its submission to the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs when Bill C-16 was tabled," Stevens said. "Bill C-16 was the Harper government's amendment to the Canada Elections Act which introduced fixed date elections in Canada but limited the ability of the Opposition to hold the government to account."

"If there is to be change to the electoral system, it should be intended to restore the integrity of our system rather than change it fundamentally because special interests and advocacy groups think they will benefit. Democracy and the constitutionality of any change must be foremost in mind", Stevens said.

"Fundamental change to how we elect Members of Parliament to the Parliament of Canada requires more than consultations which are sure to be dominated by interest groups favouring one system or another. A majority government is not a mandate to change democracy in Canada. Canadians deserve to know that any change proposed will not constitutionally challenge their democratic rights", the former Progressive Conservative cabinet minister and Progressive Canadian Party leader said.

"A Supreme Court of Canada reference on the constitutionality of any proposal, like that Canadians demanded of the Harper majority government on Senate Reform, and a referendum on such fundamental change is expected in a democracy today."

"We deserve also to know that change for the sake of change or to serve special interests and party politics is not being forced on us and on Canada", Stevens concluded.

The Progressive Canadian Leader stated that the PC Party will shortly issue a statement on electoral reform to restore the integrity of our first-past-the-post system some have questioned.

Open Letter to Friends and Progressive Conservatives from the PC Party and the Hon. Sinclair Stevens, Leader, Progressive Canadian party.

Thursday, 05 November 2015 11:50

Open Letter to Friends and Progressive Conservatives from the PC Party and the Hon. Sinclair Stevens, Leader, Progressive Canadian party.

Dear Friends and Progressive Conservatives,

The election result on October 19, 2015 is reason for members of the new Conservative Party of Canada to think deeply on the future of their party and on whether it really has a place in Canadian political life.

What is clear is that the party formed by the "merger" of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada has been rejected by Canadians who now recognize the result of the merger was not the renewed Progressive Conservative party Tory voters have thought they were voting for in elections since 2003.

New Conservative Party policy, politics, outlook and direction and political culture have been imported from the Canadian Alliance and its predecessor the Reform Party. Progressive Conservative policy, politics, outlook and direction and political culture have been pushed aside and ignored.

Some former Canadian Alliance members are publicly revisiting Preston Manning's infamous "The West wants in" diatribe by claiming "The West wants out." They echo Stephen Harper's firewall federalism, showing their contempt for democracy and insulting all Canadians in all parts of Canada, North, South, East, and West. The party Stephen Harper founded is not about Tory and conservative principle.

Integrity, parliament, and Canada matter: that is the message of the 2015 election. The party led by Stephen Harper, and previously by Stockwell Day and Preston Manning under other names, fails on all three counts. They framed the ballot question in the 2015 election. Canadians voted to replace the party, leader, and government in power since January 23, 2006.

Progressive Conservatives remaining in the new Conservative Party are justified in feeling betrayed by the policy and leadership of the Harper party. It is time to either bring that party to an end or to create a renewed Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from the ashes of crushing defeat and rejection by Canadian voters.

Those of us who share the "progressive Conservative" vision of the Tory party Sir John A. Macdonald first spoke of in 1854 have reason to take heart in the decision of Canadians on October 19, 2015. The national vision of the party of Confederation, of nation-building, and of Sir John A.'s National Dream of One Dominion from Sea to Sea is endorsed by Canadians who see the divisive politics of the last ten years put to rest.

Canadians have moved on. It is time for what was purposely called briefly the "Conservative Party" to do so as well.

It is time for Progressive Conservatives to come together to restore the vision to the party which first built a strong, united Canada to take heart in the decision of Canadians. It is time to consider a Progressive Conservative alternative.

The Progressive Canadian party exists to provide a principled Tory home for Progressive Conservatives who have decided enough is enough, that the Tory party must again become the party of nation-building and national unity.

We invite you to join us and we offer you leadership by example of what Sir John A. Macdonald's "progressive Conservative" party should look like to Canadians today. The PC Party on the ballot is the way forward to a renewed Tory government in a strong united Canada as Progressive Canadians and Progressive Conservatives.

Respectfully,

The Hon. Sinclair Stevens, Leader, The Progressive Canadian Party (PC Party)

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Brian MarlattPC Party candidate South Surrey-White Rock

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Last Updated on Wednesday, 18 May 2016 04:14

PC Party endorses Trudeau’s attacks on Harper’s non-progressive Party

Sunday, 18 October 2015 18:33

PC Party endorses Trudeau’s attacks on Harper’s non-progressive Party

Newmarket, Ont. October 17, 2015

The Honourable Sinclair Stevens, formerly Minister of Regional Economic Expansion in Mulroney’s Progressive Conservative government in the ‘80’s and currently Leader of the Progressive Canadian Party today stated, “I am very pleased to see the support given to progressive governance in recent articles in two major Canadian newspapers.” In an October 10 article endorsing Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party for next Monday’s election the Toronto Star said,“ … Stephen Harper has offered voters simply more of the same – more regressive social policies, more whittling away at government, more settling for a stagnant economy that leaves too many behind. “Canadians are a decent, progressive people who deserve a decent, progressive government that holds out the prospect of a better and more constructive future.” and also “We believe voters who refuse to accept this backward-looking, destructive agenda (and polls suggest that’s about two-thirds of them) should give their support to Trudeau and the Liberals. They offer the strongest progressive alternative to the Conservatives and are best-positioned to win enough support to form a new government.” And on October 13 the Globe and Mail wrote: “Justin Trudeau is targeting Conservative voters as he tours through Ontario in the last week of the campaign, arguing Stephen Harper has abandoned the “progressive” heritage of his Tory predecessors.”; and also, “The Liberal Leader said that in the past, PC governments fought against poverty and helped to improve Canada’s reputation on the world stage. “Those are values that haven’t disappeared, they have just disappeared from the current Conservative Party and disappeared along with anything progressive about them,” and, in a final quote from Trudeau’s statement, “We don’t need to convince them to leave the Conservative Party, we just need to show them how Stephen Harper’s party has left them.” Stevens concluded with, “It is to be hoped that, on election day, the voters will have taken note of the above and Harper’s very non-progressive party, together with its dictatorial leader, will be reduced to a minority in our Canadian parliament.”